gasifier to furnace?

Hello everyone.

I am looking to build myself a gasifier to hook up to our furnace this summer for next year's winter.

Is is possible to have both oil and a gasifier hooked up to the furnace and of so where can i get started on learning how to do this?

hi Samantha,

gasifier could mean a few things, which type of gasifier do you have in mind?

I'm thinking a wood gasifier.
We have access to wood that we can use year round to heat the house.

Samantha Buller-Kormos wrote:Hello everyone.

I am looking to build myself a gasifier to hook up to our furnace this summer for next year's winter.

Is is possible to have both oil and a gasifier hooked up to the furnace and of so where can i get started on learning how to do this?

What do you want to mean about oil ?
About wood gasifier ... you can find a lot of tips of firebox .
Just as example ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tpeg9NE2c4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31AEZu75yNI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDPYG8oVRhk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t_qu3KakUI
All this are normal masonry stove with secondary air .
Or down draft wood gasifier stove ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1nUC1e07OU
Oil can burn in a gravitational device , but for smoll room or garaje , and also can burn using an injector . To combine  the two tips of cobustion need a very good and high temperature resistant refractory firebox .
But not impossible ...

The most common way of solving this would be a downdraft gasification boiler usually placed outside with a water loop to the house. A radiator goes in the existing furnace plenum and the conventional oil furnace takes over if the water temp goes too low. Was that what you were thinking?

Our furnace system is currently being run on heating oil. They bring in a big truck and fill up the drum every 1 1/2 months or so but its quite expensive.

I don't want to get rid of the system entirely however what we got isn't working due to the rising costs of oil (thanks carbon tax).

So i'm looking at building a gasifier/boiler system to use as the main system with the heating oil as backup.

I don't leave home very often but when I do it would be nice to have that extra comfort knowing that If i don't stock the fire i'm not in trouble.

I hope i'm making sense.

Very new to this particular thing so it's difficult to explain and I have a lot to learn.

Do I get it right ? Are you going to built yourself a wood gasifier/boiler system with possibility to burn also oil ? I ask because you can buy it ready maid .
You have to choose the materials from which you want to make the stove . It is very important to know the thermal needs of the house to size correct the stove .

To make downdraft gasification boiler is a little more difficult than a normal stove .
For this tipe of combustion is better the water exchanger with smoke way in tubs , and inside the tubs , turbulators . The chimney must have very good circulation of fluid , other ways needs a fan .
The downdraft gasification room must be separated , and under will be the injector room . If I had a choice , pellets would have replaced the oil . But it is not mine .
Do you have some documentation of your stove ?

The following video helped me out a lot when trying to figure out how to integrate my outdoor wood boiler to the oil furnace:



Another one on plate-exchangers to DHW:



This should give you a good idea on how to make your connections.  

I'm assuming you have hot-water base board heat? You will need to size your plate exchanger (I guestimated mine at 3 or 4x my oil-burner rating).

Some pointers/tips/pit-falls to consider:

First consideration is do you go with 1" plumbing or 1-1/4"?  The flow rate on 1 1/4 is nearly twice that of 1", so you can get better flow/heat ransfer rates   -but-    the cost for the larger pipe and fittings are more than double and some parts can be hard to find.
Also, know that working with 1-1/4" PEX Sucks, it is VERY stiff material to work with. Copper fittings are very expensive.

- figure out how are you going to run the PEX to the house. Pre-insulated pipe starts around $10/ft for 1" PEX pair and goes up from there. Some people use spray foam and insulate it right in the trench. Based on 100' run. figure $1000 (not including backhoe expenses).
I ran mine above ground for the time being. It should be buried, preferable beneath frost line. Try to install so you can drain the lines . While you have the trench open be sure to run a conduit line (or two) to the furnace for electrical connections.

- Figure out what kind of PEX connectors you are going to use. Sharkbite connectors are awesome, I love those things. The expansion tools are pretty cool too but not worth the expense if you are only doing a few connections.



Are you building the outdoor furnace yourself?

Yes, I will be building the boiler system myself. I don't currently have one yet but will be building one this summer.
So trying to make sure I get this all figured out properly so I don't blow something up or kill myself by accident.

The set up we currently have is an oil drum that fuels the furnace.

So this will be two separate systems connected to one furnace - one ran from wood and the other just the oil drum that's connected to the furnace.

So , you will use an oil injector and downdraft gasifier fire box . Please , maybe you can post some photos with your dram oil heater .
An upper combustion firebox with secondary air is easier to do than downdraft firebox .
Your stove can be made by iron steel or refractory bricks . Have to make a choice .
Where  will be placed the stove ? How many kw power needs your house to be heated ?
How many room does the house have ? A diagram of house will help ...

From hear you have to start . After will be size stove .
These are most important think to do for starter .
Have a nice day .

Samantha Buller-Kormos wrote:Our furnace system is currently being run on heating oil. They bring in a big truck and fill up the drum every 1 1/2 months or so but its quite expensive.

I don't want to get rid of the system entirely however what we got isn't working due to the rising costs of oil (thanks carbon tax).

So i'm looking at building a gasifier/boiler system to use as the main system with the heating oil as backup.

I don't leave home very often but when I do it would be nice to have that extra comfort knowing that If i don't stock the fire i'm not in trouble.

I hope i'm making sense.

Very new to this particular thing so it's difficult to explain and I have a lot to learn.

Hi Samantha, OK from the sounds of it you have a traditional forced air oil fired furnace. So the above videos are great but are more geared for hydronic heating or radiant heating...
Here is a video for a forced air furnace. I don't know enough to recommend his kits but this is the basics.


Making a gasification boiler is... not easy but a good reference is this site here  www.driveonwood.com Don't let the name fool you there are a lot of threads on home gasification boilers. Any of the vehicle units the members build would provide heat but are kind of overkill for home heating uses. You can expect to burn up to 30 percent less wood then on a good conventional outdoor boiler if you go with gasification but there is a catch: Unlike traditional outdoor boilers gasification boilers are very picky about the wood they will burn. Forget all the stories you have heard of burning green wood, pallets, boxes loading up the firebox for 2 days etc... Gasification boilers like well dried uniform sized wood fed into them on a regular basis. If you are that type of person they are great. If you have ample wood in irregular sizes, have trouble getting your wood in on time, leave it in the rain, go away for a few days at a time then need lots of heat gasification is maybe not the best route and a more traditional boiler is more for you. It depends on lifestyle and priorities...

Here is a good descriptor of how a gasification boiler works. It's not an endorsement but illustrates how they all work:  

Cheers,  David

A simple drawing in Paint ... a combinated iron boiler . Can be placed in a special room for central heating system .
Of course , it is possible to make a combinated stove that can be placed in living . A thermoglas let you to contemplate the beauty of fire and in the back side , next room as a ...kirche, or bathroom, or corridor , can be oil burner .

Well....
FWIW it seems to me that a v shaped firebox would have an advantage in being self feeding and concentrate the coals to ensure a thick coal bed to completely combust said wood gas, it also makes for easy ash collection.

As far as plate style heat exchangers if connected between the drain bung and the hot water outlet they will thermosyphon and heat the whole tank if kept at floor level, a 6"x3", ten plate, exchanger is adequate to heat a sixty gallon water tank providing enough hot water for a (my!) family of four while keeping the electric element from  kicking in. remember PEX is usually not rated for use above 150 Fahrenheit. A mixing valve set to supply hot water to the house at 120 Fahrenheit set above the recirculation  tie in will keep the unwary from being scalded.

Finally while I used a water to air heat exchanger on the intake side of my furnace, I regretted it after a while, A furnace normally supplies heat at 1500 - 1700 Fahrenheit so it cycles on and off with reasonably long periods of off time between cycles, when the water supplied is at best 180 - 200 degrees (If your not being cautious about your PEX's longevity) the fan runs constantly! For me that background rumble without relief causes anxiety (kind of like a Star Wars movie, that horrific low background rumble of the engines...) If I do it again I will use water baseboards which convect silently and further allow fine control over each room rather than the entire house being doomed to one denizens preferences

Maybe a diagram or some photos will tell as more than a thousand words ...
Thanks .